Traitors
by caspercumbuddyxi
Summary: It was so simple. Marluxia had only ever asked one thing of Vexen, and Vexen chose his own destruction...


**A/N: Post-breakup therapy in the form of fan fiction! While typing this, I realised that the narrative and dialogue made a lot of assumptions that weren't clearly stated. I wasn't exactly in my right mind when I wrote this, however, so if anyone would like to help me smooth out the story so that the readers can follow along a little better, feel free to leave something in my reviews or inbox.**

Traitors

Ever since they'd arrived at Castle Oblivion, Vexen had had the strangest sensation that Marluxia was stalking him. Not that he ever saw the younger man. But he did see evidence of him—sometimes he'd turn around and there would be a puff of rose petals where he'd just been. Or he'd arrive at his lab to see a single rose placed on his surgery table. Once, he'd gone to his room to find an elaborately-laid-out dinner for two with a simple handwritten note from Marluxia asking to join him. The note was unsigned, but the lettering and style of words could have only belonged to one person.

It had been two weeks. Two of the longest weeks of Marluxia's questionable existence. His little gifts had all gone unacknowledged. Vexen didn't seem to realise he was there. Tonight, things would be different. They had to be. He'd laid out an exquisite three-course dinner on a surgery table he'd covered with a tablecloth and wheeled into Vexen's room. He was hiding, waiting to be acknowledged, grateful for once that he didn't have a heart. Still, he was terrible at waiting.

Vexen smelled a very familiar scent that did not in any way belong in his room. Yes, the rose petals on the tablecloth had caught his eye, but they weren't nearly numerous enough to give off such a powerful odour.

"Eleven," he called sharply, his voice ringing around the room, "if you have something to say to me, say it and begone. I've no patience for these childish games."

Finally, acknowledgement! Marluxia stepped out of the shadows, twirling a black rose between his fingers.

"Oh, but I worked so hard on that dinner," he complained theatrically. "You could at least say 'thank you.'" He sashayed over to Vexen, placing the rose in the older man's hair and a kiss on the protruding cheekbone.

"Do you have any idea how long it's been since someone held me?" he murmured, turning and pressing his back to Vexen's chest, pulling the elder's arms around him.

"About two and a half weeks?" Vexen sneered and tried to disentangle himself from Marluxia's grip, but Marluxia merely tightened it. Long nails dug into pale flesh and Vexen gritted his teeth in pain.

"No, I did not, in fact, have sex with Saix for this position," Marluxia stated, his voice taking on a mildly dangerous quality.

"Why, did he turn you down?"

Vexen yelped as, a second later, a thorny vine wrapped itself around his wrist.

"You should be nicer to me," Marluxia said, his voice colder and more dangerous than before.

"Oh, but my heart just wouldn't be in it," Vexen said sardonically. Marluxia rewarded him by tightening the vine bracelet.

"Then have the courtesy to pretend," he snarled. "Now. I fixed you a lovely dinner. The least you could do is invite me to join you in consuming it." Marluxia waited for a response and after one minute, added, "If we eat together, you'll know I didn't drug the food."

Vexen's loudly growling stomach betrayed him. Marluxia smiled triumphantly, released Vexen's arms, and dissipated the vine.

The entire time they were eating, Vexen didn't take his eyes off Marluxia. The sick bastard seemed to enjoy the attention, Vexen noted, but he knew he couldn't afford to be anything other than wary and vigilant when it came to the neophyte. Marluxia, however, did not seem to share this paranoia. On the contrary, he became more relaxed as the meal went on. At one point, he'd gone so far as to beam and thank Vexen for dining with him.

"Did I have a choice?" was Vexen's bitter response. Marluxia was crestfallen.

"Of course," he said, his voice catching. "You could have chosen to eat with me, or die." The longing in his voice, so similar to Xemnas's whenever the subject of Kingdom Hearts came up, belied the simplicity of his words. His deep blue eyes, for once not narrowed in ambition or fury, were surprisingly soft and pleading. They seemed to say, "Please, Vexen, all I wanted was for you to spend time with me."

"Don't overstep your bounds," snapped Vexen, tearing his sharp green eyes away from Marluxia's longing blue ones. "I'd hate for the Superior to hear of you abusing your position of authority."

All Marluxia's defenses came back in a second. "Pity you won't be around to tell him," he said, his voice cold once ore but filled with the same longing. "Because if you _ever_ resist or reject me again, or in any way express that I am unwanted, I _will_ have you killed."

"That's inhuman!" Vexen couldn't believe his ears.

"So are we." Marluxia smirked, his eyes narrowed in triumph. "Now come to bed with me."

Willful creature that he was, Vexen did make the mistake of resisting Marluxia's advances on a later occasion. Marluxia had turned his back on Axel when he gave the order to kill his lover. His voice had caught. He hated to let go of something that was _his_, much less give the order for its destruction, but he could not afford to be merciful. He didn't give a damn about Sora, and taking over the Organization was just something he did with Larxene to pass the time. He couldn't be truly sad, but he was reluctant to give up Vexen, whose conquest had made him feel powerful. Every night he held Vexen in his arms, he'd thought, "Screw the mission. I want to stay like this forever." He'd thought perhaps Vexen would grow to enjoy their time together. But Vexen had done the one thing Marluxia had asked him not to do, and on top of that, challenged his authority in front of the others. He had to be destroyed.

"You must eliminate the traitor," he told Axel.

"No taking that back later." Axel had been too eager to get rid of Vexen and prove Marluxia a traitor to notice anything odd about the pinket's behaviour.

"Fool," Marluxia had thought. "If there were any chance of me changing my mind, I wouldn't have given the order. But I can't afford to look soft."

**A/N: I realise that I've deleted QUITE a few stories from my page. Never fear! (Or, depending on your point of view, be very afraid.) They will return after they've been edited and made to look more presentable. For every five positive reviews I got for smut, I got one negative review for grammar or for offending the readers' sensibilities. (I got surprisingly little negative feedback for character OOC-ness.) **

**Unfortunately for some of you, I am a spelling and grammar editor, not a content editor. I will not change or delete certain themes in my writing, even if it offends some of you. You all have the option to click away from the story if you find its content offensive. Also, re: OOC!Vexen: I got surprisingly little negative feedback for this, but I will explain anyway. The stories I deleted were all collaborative. Most of them were written with my most recent ex. It is either outside her abilities or outside her interest to write Vexen in-character. I fail miserably at editing for content, so you're all stuck with fluffy!Vexen. I will repeat this warning when I repost the stories.**


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